Haddad says tariff impasse is due to US interest in rare earths

Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said this Saturday (23) that the United States' strategic interest in rare earths and critical minerals is the reason behind the political pressure and tariff impasse in relation to Brazil.

According to him, the international competition for these resources, essential for the economy of the future, helps explain external pressures on Latin America as well.

"Even this interference in Brazilian politics, in my opinion, has to do with this [rare earths]. They [the US] need a government that sells out because it's strategic for them. Since they think Latin America is the United States' backyard, that's not the perception," Haddad said in an interview with TV channel GGN.

Earlier, also on Saturday (23), Haddad attacked the US saying that relations between the two countries were targets of a “hostile attitude” influenced by Brazilian right-wing groups that only want to protect alleged “coup plotters”.

Haddad defended regulation for rare earths

The minister also stated that he doesn't know "what stage" the debate on the regulatory framework for rare earths is at, but that it needs to be prepared. "The sector is not organized. The quantity is small, but very valuable. The stakes are enormous," he added.

Haddad also said that there are not many countries in the world with rare earths and that China, the world's largest producer and processor, will keep its reserves for its own use.

"Then we have Vietnam and Brazil, with a lot of minerals and rare earths. The United States, to give you an idea, doesn't have 10% of the critical minerals that Brazil has. Compared to China, they don't have 5%. In other words, China has 20 times more, and Brazil has more than 10 times more than the United States," he said.

According to the minister, American technology companies depend on critical minerals for their production, but Brazilian companies must be considered.

"You can't produce a modern chip, a modern GPU, with typical minerals. You can't. Nvidia depends on it, Microsoft depends on it, they all depend on it. And we have to think about having our own technology companies as well," he stated.